Katheryn Winnick (of Vikings fame) has been tapped for a lead role in an ABC crime drama titled The Big Sky, based on C.J. Box’s The Highway. C.J. Box is one of a crop of Rocky Mountain writers who have made the modern West the locus of some really first rate crime fiction. Boss of the genre for me is Craig Johnson with his Longmire series, but … [Read more...] about The Beauty Of The Big Sky

Memorial Day is fixin’ to be a feast of frontier drama. Barkskins premiers on Monday, May 25 on the National Geographic Channel. The more I see of this, the more excited I am for it. TV Insider has a good interview with the showrunner, Elwood Reid: Based on Annie Proulx’s best-selling novel, the series from Elwood Reid takes a close look at the … [Read more...] about A Feast Of Frontier Drama

There’s a potential fight brewing between the state of South Dakota and the Lakota nations over COVID-19 checkpoints. From Rapid City Journal: Gov. Kristi Noem sent letters Friday to both the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Oglala Sioux Tribe demanding that their checkpoints for COVID-19 related travel be removed from state and U.S. highways. If … [Read more...] about More From The Trapline — May 2020 — Of War Clubs, Checkpoints And Buffalo

Been following this batshit crazy mercenary misadventure in Venezuela a few days back. A U.S. contractor called Silvercorp was apparently behind a small and woefully ill-equipped and ill-prepared amphibious incursion led by some ex-Special Forces soldiers which was apparently designed to whack Nicolas Maduro and launch an uprising. Laudable enough … [Read more...] about Send Lawyers, Guns And Money…

If I could roll back the years Back when I was young and limber Loose as ashes in the wind I had no irons in the fire... — Ian Tyson, 50 Years Ago The Great Quarantine has not altered my activities much, with the exception of shutting down music gigs, which I miss acutely. I’ve been playing pretty regularly, but only on the couch. … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — May 2020 — ’Throat-Slitting, Lies And Land-Grabs’

Forty years ago today, on April 30, 1980, six gunmen took over the Iranian embassy in Kensington in London. Six days later, the British Special Air Service stormed the building, rescued most of the hostages and killed most of the gunmen. The siege of the embassy was broadcast around the world on television, and it made the SAS the hottest, sexiest … [Read more...] about The Siege

  Clan Cornelius has been spending many an evening during the Great Quarantine on the frontiers of Dark Ages England, watching The Last Kingdom. We rewatched Season 3 and have delved into Season 4 which is now available in its entirety on Netflix. Based on Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles, the Last Kingdom of the title is 9th Century … [Read more...] about Our Lady Of Mercia

Read a story on Monday where Mayor de Blasio of New York City said that it’s “unconscionable” that criminals released from jail to save them from COVID-19 would commit crimes while on release. Uh... criminals... I’ve been relying on my well-honed propensity for dark or absurd gallows humor to keep me from spiraling into rage at the … [Read more...] about A Victim Of Life’s Circumstances

Taylor Brown, author of the magnificent new novel Pride of Eden, scouted out a forthcoming National Geographic doco on an all-woman anti-poaching unit in Zimbabwe. Looks potent. From Deadline: Akashinga: The Brave Ones is set to have its world premiere at the EarthXFilm Festival, which will be held virtually April 22-27 to celebrate the 50th … [Read more...] about The Brave Ones